Pre-Season Testing – Bahrain: Day 2
Sakhir, 22 February 2024 – Stake F1 Team Kick Sauber enjoyed a positive second day of pre-season testing at the Bahrain International Circuit. It was another productive day for the team, which followed the direction set yesterday and accrued another good amount of mileage and data for the engineers to work with. It was Zhou Guanyu's turn to bring out the C44 on track this morning, with Valtteri Bottas following in the afternoon session. Despite a shortened morning session, due to a red flag caused by a loose piece of drain cover, the team still managed to complete its full programme for the day, also including some performance runs and race simulation in the final part of the afternoon.
Tomorrow marks the final day of testing, with Valtteri in the car in the morning and Zhou closing out in the afternoon.
Circuit: Bahrain International Circuit / 5.412 km
Driver: Zhou Guanyu (morning); Valtteri Bottas (afternoon)
Chassis / engine: Stake F1 Team Kick Sauber C44-02 / Ferrari
Laps: 38 laps, 205.656 km (ZHO); 97 laps, 524.964 km (BOT)
Fastest Lap: 1:33.715 – P13 (ZHO); 1:32.227 – P9 (BOT)
Valtteri Bottas (Car 77): "Today has been another good day on track; we gathered a large amount of data over 130 laps, and the driving felt smooth, even better than yesterday with cooler track conditions – as I took part in the afternoon session, which is closer to what we're going to experience next week. Balance-wise, I believe we moved forward and found some more performance, which surely gives us a nice feeling. Still, there's always room for improvement, and that's the direction we're aiming for tomorrow, trying to get everything out of the final day of testing."
Zhou Guanyu (Car 24): "We had another solid day of testing today; we have definitely seen some progression compared to yesterday and were able to collect more valuable data and insights. Unfortunately, our morning run had to end early due to the red flag, but luckily, we still managed to get through our anticipated programme without having to cut anything short. Tomorrow is one more day to get a better feel for the car before our first race next weekend."
